The terms “telemedicine,” “telehealth,” “e-health” and the like are generally used to connote the use of telephony and/or other communication links (e.g., satellite) in combination with a camera (e.g., a still camera or a video camera) and/or a connected medical device or instrument (e.g., an electrocardiograph (ECG)) to convey sound, image, and data from a patient in a first location (e.g., an “originating site”) to a doctor or other health care provider in a second, distal, location (e.g., a “remote site”) to enable the doctor or health care provider to evaluate, advise, treat and/or diagnose the patient.
Now, emerging from its investigational phase, insurance carriers are increasingly providing coverage for telemedicine services. Legislatures are also recognizing the benefits of telemedicine to their constituents and many are developing or have developed laws to protect the citizens and to regulate this advance. As one example, California has passed laws promoting the acceptability of telemedicine including, but not limited to, Cal. Health and Safety Code § 1374.13, which recognizes telemedicine as a means for receiving medical services and establishes that certain telemedicine services are reimbursable under the Medi-Cal program and 1996 Cal. Stats., Chap. 902 (SB 2098), which authorizes the Medical Board of California to develop a proposed registration program permitting physicians, surgeons and podiatrists located outside the state to practice medicine across state lines if they meet the legal requirements of the state.
A number of publications have issued relating to the communications systems underlying telemedicine including, but not limited to, U.S. Published patent applications Nos. 2003/0144579, 2003/0231238, 2004/0039606, and 2004/0078825, the disclosures of which are all incorporated by reference in their entirety herein. However, little attention appears to have been directed to the patient space or, more particularly, the arrangement of the patient space to address the ergonomic and temporal needs of the doctors providing the telemedicine consult or services.
A need exists for improvements not only to interface between the doctor and patient, but also to the interface between the doctor and the patient space and/or the doctor and the originating facility or “telesuite” itself.